Date
6-8-2023
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Susan R. Quindag
Keywords
emergency remote teaching, self-efficacy, pedagogical digital competency, covid-19, educational technology
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Grewal, Teerath Kaur, "Elementary School Teachers' Pedagogical Digital Competency and Self-Efficacy During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Multiple Case Study" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4545.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4545
Abstract
The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand the pedagogical digital competence and self-efficacy of educators from Delta Technology Elementary School and MacArthur Elementary School during emergency remote teaching of the 2020-2021 school year caused by the Covid-19 crisis. Previous research has shown that factors such as competency and self-efficacy as primary elements that immensely influence the educator’s ability to integrate technology in a classroom. The theory guiding this study was Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, which explains the educator’s ability to integrate educational technology within instructional practices successfully. Qualitative multiple case study was used to explore the challenges and successes that educators experienced with educational technology. Six teachers from first through sixth grade from each school site were selected to participate in this study and shared their experiences regarding their pedagogical digital competence and self-efficacy. Data were collected through a timeline template, interviews, and artifacts/documents. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The themes were resilience for online teaching, insufficient professional development, anticipated and unanticipated challenges, in-person education preferred, and advanced hardware technology. The sub-themes were learning online teaching, increase in digital competence, teacher collaboration, self-taught, and site-specific challenges. The study found significantly low self-efficacy with participants from both school sites in regard to using educational technology at the initial stage of emergency remote teaching. Future research recommendations include studying the perspectives of other stakeholders, such as administrators, parents, and students, to learn from their experiences.
